US Presidents in movie history, being awful. Not like in real-life. *cough*
With America going to the polls for the US Election today, we feel it's safe to say that these past four years under Donald Trump has been like rubbernecking a car-crash for the rest of the world, such is how terrible a President he is.
Of course, movies have had their fair share of terrible US Presidents. Movies like 'Escape From New York', 'Clear And Present Danger' and even Oliver Stone's 'Nixon' have shown that being US President can exaggerate people's megalomaniacal tendencies because, well, they're the President of the United States.
Here's the five worst fictional US Presidents in movie history.
5. Jack Nicholson in 'MARS ATTACKS!'
A screaming, oily politician who begged for his life ahead from invading aliens, Jack Nicholson's take on the US Presidency in Tim Burton's 'Mars Attacks!' drew visual parallels with the likes of Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon. Still, there was some of Nicholson's careening bluster there to make it a little bit more exciting and gripping.
4. Donald Pleasance in 'ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK'
John Carpenter wrote 'Escape From New York' in the wake of Nixon's Watergate, believing that the story of a President captured by armed gangsters in a post-apocalyptic New York was a parallel. As Carpenter said himself, it was a cynical take on the Presidency and was probably why almost no studio wanted to make the film.
Donald Pleasance, of course, was best known to audiences at the time for playing another villain - Ernst Stavro Blofeld in 'You Only Live Twice'. Here, he was much less of a global tyrant and more something pathetic and weak. It's even summed up by Snake Plissken. When told that the President has been captured in New York, he replies, 'The President of what?'
Useless bit of trivia - in this scene below, the blonde bodyguard with the rifle is none other than Steven Ford, the son of Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States.
3. Gene Hackman in 'ABSOLUTE POWER'
Gene Hackman has more than enough experience playing a villain, but how about playing Presidents? Well, to our knowledge, he's played two - 'Welcome To Mooseport' and 'Absolute Power'.
The latter was written by William Goldman and directed by Clint Eastwood and saw Hackman as a violent sociopathic President who sexually assaulted the wife of a rich tycoon and had his Secret Service agents murder her when he was done. Hackman was perfect at playing the two-faced politician who hides a murderous streak under polished speeches and glad-handing, although the film itself is a bit of a letdown.
2. Lloyd Bridges in 'HOT SHOTS: PART DEUX'
Oh, how fun it is to think of a President who's all very well-meaning, but just a little bit dumb. Fun times, people. Lloyd Bridges in 'Hot Shots: Part Deux' was something of a punchline, but would you put him charge of the nuclear launch codes? Would you want him presiding over hostile negotiations with rogue nations bent on upheaval and chaos? Christ, people. No. Never. Ever.
1. Martin Sheen in 'THE DEAD ZONE'
Although many will remember Martin Sheen as President Jed Bartlet in TV's 'The West Wing', Sheen's first time out playing a US President was in David Cronenberg's terrifying adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Dead Zone'.
Here, Sheen used all his charms and poise to play a hugely electable politician, one who could endear himself fully to people and was every inch someone that people would vote for. It's only when Christopher Walken makes contact with him - literally - that he sees him for what he is; a genocidal maniac who wants to nuke the Soviet Union preemptively and start World War III in the process.